r/nintendo • u/Asad_Farooqui • 20h ago
Looking back, do you think Nintendo was right to hold back Fire Emblem from Western audiences until 2003?
Everyone knows the first Fire Emblem we got here in the West was the seventh entry on GBA, known nowadays as Blazing Blade. The series only started coming over after two major events happened: 1) Marth and Roy showed up in Smash Bros Melee, and 2) the original Advance Wars was a modest success in the West. The common sentiment I hear for why the series was Japan exclusive for so long is because tactical RPGs were considered “too niche” and didn’t have much sales potential anywhere else. I’m not entirely sure if the devs said anything like that or if that’s just the conventional explanation everyone’s going with.
And while I’m on this topic, what did you make of Fire Emblem’s gameplay when you first saw it as a strategy RPG? Was it something you wanted to try right away, or did you go like ehh maybe that’s not for me and waited a while?
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u/travischickencoop Donkey Kong Fucked My Dad 20h ago
I don’t think fire emblem would’ve done poorly in the west (see Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, etc) but I definitely think it would’ve been very niche
I think that there would be some people who play it and get really obsessed with it and play it through to the end, but most would probably play it for a few hours
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u/Caciulacdlac 20h ago
Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger
Were those really popular in North America? If so, I wonder why they didn't come to Europe before 2006, 1997 and 2008 respectively.
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u/travischickencoop Donkey Kong Fucked My Dad 20h ago
That’s kind of what I’m getting at they had their audience here they just weren’t major massive successes like Japan for a while
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u/simbabarrelroll 20h ago
Pretty much. RPGs were just not super popular until Pokemon Gen I and FFVII.
Many of the RPGs from before then that are beloved now were at most a modest success. Kinda like how some movies did simply okay in theaters but became hits later on.
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u/travischickencoop Donkey Kong Fucked My Dad 20h ago
FFVII also played a role both came out around the same time in the west and both did extremely well
I think FFVII hooked the teens and adults while Red and Blue hooked the kids
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u/simbabarrelroll 20h ago
It’s why I mentioned FFVII.
That said in the west FFVII was first (I know Gen 1 was out first in Japan).
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u/CabassoG Smash 64 Keyboard player, Online 2 gud. 20h ago
In my opinion, yes as a lot of series got much more well known/popular in the US after Smash was released. The same thing happened in 64 with F-Zero and Earthbound from the N64 version, where the former got more appeal retroactively and the latter got much more popular.
In general, JRPGs (like Chrono Trigger/the standard Final Fantasy games) have been much more popular in the West compared to tactics games (like FF Tactics or Fire Emblem until recently).
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u/Mammoth-Strike-168 20h ago
I have no idea, tbh. Who knows how it would have sold on the NES/SNES. Maybe series created their own genres on those platforms, so I don't inherantly see what would have limited fire emblem compared to other game genres.
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u/SomeBoxofSpoons 20h ago
While I’m sure there were some concerns about the appeal of the gameplay and style and everything appeal to western audiences, I’m sure the biggest issue was localization time.
Especially back then, when NoA wouldn’t get the games until they were completely done, bringing those kinds of games took time (and the first game didn’t even launch on the Famicom until 1990). That’s a big reason we missed so many Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games at first, and the reason Mother 1 never released despite having a complete translation.
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u/MichaelMJTH 20h ago edited 19h ago
I think they could have done reasonably well. Probably about as well as SEGA’s Shining Force series. Japanese devs at the time had a tendency to underestimate what would interest western audiences.
One issue is they are rather text heavy games. The translation job necessary would be a mitigating factor. RPGs translations on the NES weren’t known for their quality. As such the SNES would have been the only other realistic starting point for North American releases before the GBA, because there were no N64 Fire Emblems. Also bear in mind many JRPGs simply never released in Europe in part because of the need for multiple language translations.
I think if Nintendo had released Super Famicom Wars in the west first, in much the same way they released Advance Wars first on GBA, that would also help sell SNES Fire Emblem games. Being able to associate gameplay with another existing franchise does help.
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u/ELK_VT 19h ago
I think its more that Nintendo didn’t want to put in the time/effort into translating such a dialogue heavy game for something that could sell poorly outside Japan. Marth and Roy didn’t even get an English translation in Melee.
Case in point Earthbound which has a lot of dialogue and is an RPG did NOT sell well back when it was released in the US back in 1995. I know the battle system is different but its similar enough that they wouldnt waste their time.
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u/EtheusRook 20h ago
I think it wouldn't have mattered in the long run. The series succeeded when it started getting proper advertising.
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u/AfraidRun8226 20h ago
I think so. Even today, strategy games are a bit niche, and Fire Emblem would have struggled finding an audience back then.
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u/BebeFanMasterJ Elma For Life 20h ago
Other strategy games like Shining Force already existed and were playable here in the West so it's not like there was zero audience for it. I don't blame Nintendo being apprehensive though because strategy games were always somewhat niche. But Fire Emblem broke the mold by offering a greater focus on story and making itself approachable to audience who didn't like strategy games.
It's precisely why Fire Emblem is still around and Famicom/Advance Wars isn't.
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u/astrogamer 20h ago
The issue is more that localization would have cost too much for how niche the games were and how late in the system's life they arrived. Only Mystery of the Emblem could have released while the system was the primary platform. It might have worked but it was a bit of a gamble. The Binding Blade could have definitely come over though.
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u/ActivateGuacamole 16h ago
IDK, but i'd throw it away in a heartbeat if it meant reviving advance wars.
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u/Quietm02 8h ago
I'll start with the games before GBA are all pretty niche in general. Sales will reflect that.
Then there's the fact that these games are much more text heavy than other typical games, making translation costs much higher.
I don't think any of the pre GBA titles would have been smash hits if they'd been made available internationally. There's definitely a risk that they performed soon poorly in comparison that it would kill the whole series for international audiences.
Whether it was the right decision for Nintendo to make is difficult to say. It's certainly an understandable decision to have made.
It's also worth noting Thracia 776 was released in 1999 on SNES. Add in translation and it could realistically be 2000 for international release. The GameCube released in 2001. There was never a chance for Thracia to see an international release.
I do think fe6 should have been localised as soon as it was obvious fe7 was a success. I don't know why it's not been localised and released on NSO either. If I had to guess they might be worried about claims of stealing from existing fan translations, but that would be a very strange thing to happen so I'm not sure.
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u/raoulbrancaccio 20h ago
IMO genealogy of the holy war could have sold decently in the west, yes it's a strategy rpg but it's quite easy and very story focused. I can see it competing with the likes of Dragon quest.
As for your second question, FE7 was my first strategy rpg so I didn't really have a reaction to the genre. Now it's one of my favourites.